


Dan and Felipinho and the Monster

by bethonie (Formula_Tea)



Series: Dan should not baby sit [3]
Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: Baby sitting, Bed time stories, Gen, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-22
Updated: 2014-11-22
Packaged: 2018-02-26 14:43:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2655812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Formula_Tea/pseuds/bethonie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dan's the only baby sitter they can get at such a short notice, and Dan is happy to help. He isn't very good at reading bed time stories, though.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dan and Felipinho and the Monster

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't mean to write this, but I made it up on the bus and it had me grinning so I thought I would share.

Felipe groaned when he put down the phone as Raffaela came down the stairs, struggling with the clasp on her bracelet.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Baby sitter has cancelled,” Felipe said, looking down at his phone. “She’s ill or something.”

Raffaela sighed and stopped messing with the bracelet. “I’m not staying here.”

“It’s too late to find another baby sitter,” Felipe said, looking down at Felipinho sat watching cartoons. “We could bring him with us?”

“No,” Raffaela said, definitely. “No, because then you’ll go off with Rob and Valtteri and I’ll be left with a moody, sleepy five year old.”

“Cannot leave him here alone,” Felipe said.

“Then we’re going to have to find somebody.”

 

Felipe smiled as he opened the door, but the memories of Dan’s last babysitting trial were still fresh in his mind and he knew he was going to spend the entire night worrying about what he was going to be coming back to.

Dan grinned as Felipe showed him inside, apparently forgetting the incidents of the last time he’d set foot in the Massas’ home.

“Thank you for coming on such short notice,” Felipe said.

“Nah, it’s fine,” Dan said. “Anything to help a friend.”

“DAN!”

Felipinho flew out of the chair and greeted Dan with a tight hug, grinning. Felipe caught Raffaela’s eye and shrugged.

“Hey, little man,” Dan said, picking Felipinho up. “Nice PJs.”

“They’re Spiderman,” Felipinho pointed out, before diving into a full blown explanation into who he thought was the best superhero.

It was strange to watch. Around the kids at school, Felipinho was the chattiest child in the world, but he was strangely quiet around adults.

Except, clearly, Dan.

“Anyway,” Felipe said. “We should get going. We’re going to be back late, and the spare bed is made up if you want to go to sleep.”

“His bedtime’s in half an hour,” Raffaela said. “He’s allowed one story. Don’t let him con you into anymore. Felipinho, you be a good boy, ok?”

“I will Mama,” Felipinho broke his super hero speech to make the promise.

Felipe couldn’t help but laugh a little, ignoring the look his wife was shooting him.

 

“I’ve already read these books,” Felipinho complained. “Lots and lots of times. These ones,” he pointed to a stack of books beside the book shelf. “Are new. Can you read one of them?”

Dan let the child pick his own story, taking it off him when he climbed into the bed.

“Right,” he said, opening the book. “Timmy and the Monster.”

 

“The Monster picked up Timmy’s Papa by his foot and ate him up in just one bite. Then it turned to Timmy.”

Dan could feel Felipinho shaking beside him, and had already stopped showing the child the pictures that had accompanied the story. He closed the book and put it down.

“I think that’s enough for tonight, mate,” he said, standing. “Goodnight.”

“Dan?”

“Yeah?”

“Can you put the night light on?” Felipinho asked, quietly, pointing the star night light on the other side of the room.

“Sure.”

 

“He _ate_ the kid’s dad, Jev,” Dan said, shaking a little. “What kind of sicko writes a kid’s book like that?”

He was sat on the sofa down stairs. He’d been thinking about the story for hours, unable to get the images from the book from his mind.

Jev sighed. Over the phone it sounded like a rush of static. “It’s just a book, Dan.”

“It was a horror story,” Dan said. “He _ate_ the kid’s dad.”

“You have said this,” Jev said. “You have already said this twice.”

“It’s sick,” Dan said. “I don’t know. I just…”

A huge bang from up the stairs made him stop and he jumped up. He listened in silence, but there was nothing else, and he was beginning to think he had imagined it.

“What was that?” Jev asked.

No, he hadn’t imagined it.

“I don’t know.”

“Is Felipe back?” Jev suggested.

Dan shook his head, even though he knew Jev couldn’t see that. “It came from upstairs.”

There was another bang from up the stairs and this time there was no doubt that it was real. Dan’s legs had turned to jelly, but he couldn’t sit back down. Something was upstairs.

“Dan?” Jev asked.

“PAPA!” a broken and panicked voice cried. “PAAAAAAPAAAAAAAA!”

Dan dropped the phone and raced up the stairs, his legs still shaking beneath him. At the top, he stumbled, falling into the wall as he turned at the top and ran down to Felipinho’s bedroom. He threw the door open and flicked the light on. The bed was empty, the child on the floor, tied up in his blankets with tears streaming down his face. He stopped wriggling when he realised the light was on.

“Papa?”

“Papa’s out, mate,” Dan said, quietly, crouching down to unwrap the small child from the blankets. “Calm down. It’s ok. I’m here.”

“The monster ate Mama and he is going to eat me!” Felipinho cried, squirming onto Dan’s lap.

“There is no monster,” Dan insisted, shifting so he could sit properly with Felipinho. “Mama and Papa are out. They’ll be back later.”

“You have to make the monster go away, Dan,” Felipinho whispered, squeezing his eyes shut and burring his face in Dan’s chest.

Dan sighed, patting Felipinho’s back. He stood with Felipinho in his arms, still rubbing soothing circles into his back. They went down the stairs and into the kitchen, where Dan sat Felipinho on the counter top.

“What are you doing?” the youngster asked, scrubbing his eyes.

“I am making warm milk,” Dan said, looking in the cupboards for a saucepan. “Have you never had warm milk?”

Felipinho shook his head, sniffing and trying to stop himself crying.

“Really? When I was little and there were monsters in my closet, my mum would make me warm milk,” Dan explained, turning on the cooker on. “And it would calm me down.”

“Did it make the monsters go away?” Felipinho asked.

“Yeah,” Dan said.

As he made the milk, Dan told the story of the time there was a scary monster in his closet, but it just turned out to be a giant teddy. It made Felipinho giggle, but he still wasn’t settled when Dan handed him the drink.

“Right,” Dan said. “Drink that and I’ll take you back to bed, ok?”

“But what if the monster is still there?” Felipinho asked. “He is going to get me and gobble me up.”

“Well,” Dan thought slowly, drinking his own warm milk and hoping that calmed him down too. “We could always make a pillow fort.”

“A what?”

“Have you never made a pillow fort?” Dan asked. The more time he spent with Felipinho, the more he realised he’d had a blessed childhood. When the five year old shook his head, Dan sighed and put his milk down. “Right. You go upstairs, get all your bedding from your bed and take it into the spare room, ok? I’ll be up in a minute.”

 

The fort was probably the best Dan had ever made, and he sat in it beside Felipinho very proud of himself. The child still looked a little uncertain.

“But… can’t the monster get in?”

“Nope,” Dan said. “Nobody can get in unless they know the secret password. And the monster doesn’t know it.”

“What secret password?”

“I don’t know. You have to make one up,” Dan said. “But remember to tell me, otherwise I can’t get in.”

Felipinho thought slowly, trying to come up with a good password that the monster would never guess. A grin crept onto his face when he thought of something good.

“I have one.”

“Go on then, tell me.”

Felipinho wriggled onto his knees so he could whisper into Dan’s ear, Dan trying not to squirm as Felipinho’s breathy whisper tickled his ear.

Less than ten minutes later, wrapped in the cocoon like pillow fort, Felipinho was asleep with his head resting on Dan’s lap. Dan had calmed down a lot and could feel himself getting sleepy. He considered getting up and taking Felipinho to bed, but he didn’t want to wake him in case he didn’t go back to sleep.

 

It was well past midnight by the time Felipe and Raffaela came home. Neither questioned the empty living room, too exhausted to even notice, as they went up the stairs. The house was silent and neither of them really felt any need to break that silent as they went to bed.

“Go and check on Felipinho,” Raffaela said quietly as she fell onto their bed, struggling to pull her heels off.

“The floor is not wet,” Felipe noticed. “Are already better than last time.”

“Go and check on him,” Raffaela ordered.

Felipe sighed and left to check on his son.

Raffaela fell back onto the bed, then frowned when she noticed the lack of sheets.

Felipe was surprised to find the light in Felipinho’s room still on, but even more surprised to find the bed empty of both child and bed sheets.

“Dan?” he called uncertainly, trying to keep himself calm as he went to the spare bedroom. It would be ok. He was ok.

He almost laughed when he opened the door to the spare room. Raffaela was at his side as soon as she had the heels off.

Dan and Felipinho were both asleep on the floor, Dan leaning against the bed behind him, in the middle of something Felipe could only describe as a mess.

“He’s a bad influence on him,” Felipe said, quietly. He wasn’t sure which one was the bad influence, though.

“I don’t know. It looks kind of sweet,” Raffaela said. “Have you got your phone? You know he’ll want to see this when he wakes up.”

Felipe grinned, pulling out his mobile to take the picture. “Do we leave them there?” he asked.

Raffaela tutted, picking her way through the mess to pick up her son. Felipinho blinked sleepily, confused, but his mother just shushed him and he snuggled into her, going back to sleep.

“You can deal with Dan,” she said as she passed Felipe again, taking Felipinho into his own room. “And get our bed sheets back.”

Felipe sighed and looked down at Dan. The snoring that came from the Australian gave him the feeling waking Dan wasn’t going to be easy.


End file.
